The story of Lucy Letby depriving tiny, helpless babies of their lives in a hospital just 12 miles from me sent my blood pressure soaring and hot tears running, writes Val Savage
The news can sometimes be so bleak there is the temptation to turn it off â but I always keep up with it in this newspaper, on the telly and wireless, just as my parents did.
The story of Lucy Letby depriving tiny, helpless babies of their lives in a hospital just 12 miles from me sent my blood pressure soaring and hot tears running. And refusing to attend court to receive her life sentence was her final despicable act. I don’t believe in capital punishment and despise the very thought of violence. But had I been one of the bereaved parents as she stood before me in court, I would have gone for her.
If someone hurts your child, the pain cuts deeper than any other. It’s unbearable, unimaginable. So when it comes to anyone harming the people you love more than life, I believe it’s an eye for an eye. Letby’s mum said, âI did it. Take me instead’, when her daughter was arrested for the final time. That’s how deep the love for a child runs.
But if a child of mine had ever committed such horrendous crimes, my love for them would reach its limit. And I would say: “You deserve this life sentence.” My mum attended Chester Races in April 1966 when Moors Murderer Myra Hindley was tried at Chester crown court, just across the road.